Fastest Python method for search and replace on a large string

Question

I\'m looking for the fastest way to replace a large number of sub-strings inside a very large string. Here are two examples I\'ve used.

findall() feels simpler and

Answer 1

By the way, your code with findall_replace() isn't safe, it can return unawaited results:

ch = 'sea sun ABC-ABC-DEF bling ranch micABC-DEF fish'

import re

def findall_replace(text, reg, rep):
    for gr in reg.findall(text):
        text = text.replace(gr, rep)
        print 'group==',gr
        print 'text==',text
    return '\nresult is : '+text

pat = re.compile('ABC-DE')
rep = 'DEFINITION'

print 'ch==',ch
print
print findall_replace(ch, pat, rep)

display

ch== sea sun ABC-ABC-DEF bling ranch micABC-DEF fish

group== ABC-DE
text== sea sun ABC-DEFINITIONF bling ranch micDEFINITIONF fish
group== ABC-DE
text== sea sun DEFINITIONFINITIONF bling ranch micDEFINITIONF fish

result is : sea sun DEFINITIONFINITIONF bling ranch micDEFINITIONF fish